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R4u'ke Ever~l Drop Coic~~f corrfinued from page 1 Yet there is a dark side to this picture: despite our progress, half of the world's population still suffers with water services inferior to those available to the ancient Greeks and Romans. The latest United Nations report on access to water states that more than one billion people lack access to clean drinking water and two and a half billion do not have adequate sanitation services. Preventable water-related diseases kill an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 children every day, and the latest evidence suggests that we are falling behind in efforts to solve these problems. Massive cholera outbreaks appeared in the mid-1990s in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Millions of people in Bangladesh and India drink water contaminated with arsenic. The surging populations throughout the developing world are intensifying the pressures on limited water supplies. At the outset of the new millennium, however, the way resource planners think about water is beginning to change. The focus is slowly shifting back to the provision of basic human and environmental needs as the top priority. To accomplish these goals and meet the demands of booming populations, some water experts now call for using existing infrastructure in smarter ways rather than building new facilities. The challenges we face are to use the water we have more efficiently, to rethink our priorities for water use, and to identify alternative supplies of this precious resource. Damage from Dams Over the past 100 years, humankind has designed networks of canals, dams, and reservoirs so extensive that the resulting redistribution of freshwater from one place to another and from one season to the next accounts for a small but measurable change in the wobble of the earth as it spins. U many nations, big dams and reservoirs were originally considered vital for national security, economic prosperity, and agricultural survival. Until the late 1970s and early 1980s, few people took into account the environmental consequences of these massive projects. Today, however, the results are clear: dams have destroyed the ecosystems in and around countless rivers, lakes, and streams. Until very recently, international financial organizations such as the World Bank, export-import banks, and multilateral aid agencies subsidized or paid in full for dams or other water- related civil engineering projects, which often had price tags in the tens of billions of dollars. These organizations are slowly beginning to reduce or eliminate such subsidies, putting more of the financial burden on already strained national econorrues. ~'\dljl't`SSli14~' i[1C ~1~~~ritj's b~~sir ~~4~<1C~'i ~~t't~~)jC']) [S rc~~t~irc`ti fui~~i~illic~it~li~ Cjl~?11~~C'S 111.11111' 11'L` 1111 }~ ~1 L~ O U f l1' d l 'T, ~l ll l~_ sEic11 chan~~~`s are; ~=t)]l1i[l~ flh(lU t .tilt)\NjV. t `t~ , Fortunately-and unexpectedly-the demand for water is not rising as rapidly as some predicted. Although population, industrial output, and economic productivity have continued to soar in developed nations, the rate at which people withdraw water from aquifers, rivers, and lakes has slowed. And in a few parts of the world, demand has actually fallen. Demand Is Down-But for How Long? What explains this remarkable turn of events? Two factors: people have figured out how to use water more efficiently, and communities are rethinking their priorities for water use. Throughout the first three quarters of the 20th century, the quantity of freshwater consumed per person doubled on average; in the U.S., water withdrawals increased 10-fold while the population quadrupled. But since 1980 the amount of water consumed per person has actually decreased, thanks to a range of new technologies that help to conserve water in homes and industry. h1 1965, for instance, Japan used approximately 13 million gallons of water to produce $1 million of commercial output; by 1989 this quantity had dropped to 3.5 million gallons (even accounting for inflation)-almost a quadrupling of water productivity. In the U.S., water withdrawals have fallen by more than 20 percent from their peak in 1980. As the world's population continues to grow, dams, aqueducts, and other kinds of infrastructure will still have to be built, particularly in developing countries where basic human needs have not been met. But such projects must be built to higher standards and with more accountability to local people and their environment than in the past. Even in regions where new projects seem warranted, we must find ways to meet demands with fewer resources, minimum ecological disruption, and less money. New approaches to meeting water needs will not be easy to implement: economic and institutional structures still encourage the wasting of water and the destruction of ecosystems. Among the barriers to better water planning and use are inappropriately low water prices, inadequate information on new efficiency technologies, inequitable water allocations, and government subsidies for growing water-intensive crops in arid regions or building dams. Part of the difficulty, however, also lies in the prevalence of old ideas among water planners. Addressing the world's basic water problems requires fundamental changes in how we think about water, and such changes are coming about slowly. Rather than trying endlessly to find enough water to meet hazy projections of future desires, it is time to find a way to meet our present and future needs with the water that is already available, while preserving the ecological cycles that are so integral to human well- being. , Information on the world's water resources can be found at: www.worldwater.org Peter H. Gleick is director of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security, a non-profit policy research think tank based in Oakland, Calif. FACETS Summer 2002